How modern conflict weaponizes food

Outlet: Arab News

Language: English

Abstract: Conflict-driven hunger has escalated into a brutal and calculated strategy of warfare, particularly in regions such as the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and the Middle East. In Gaza, over 2.1 million Palestinians face severe food insecurity, while Sudan’s historic hunger crisis now impacts 25.6 million people. This orchestrated deprivation aims to subjugate civilian populations through enforced food scarcity. Historical precedents, like grain embargoes and manipulation, reveal food's recurring role as a weapon, but today’s conflicts refine these tactics with devastating precision, impacting millions and elevating global food prices.

From Gaza’s blockade that restricts food imports to Sudan’s shattered agricultural cycles, this weaponization of food exacerbates suffering and complicates peace efforts. Humanitarian aid is systematically blocked, rendering essential relief intermittent and unreliable. The international community’s failure to address food weaponization perpetuates dependency, fear, and instability among the most vulnerable populations. This deliberate denial of food and aid threatens long-term physical, economic, and psychological stability, leaving a grim legacy of suffering and dependency that will endure across generations.

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